Six Senses Laamu: Award-winning CSR programme shapes sustainable hospitality

In the heart of the Maldives, nestled within the nation’s only atoll-designated Hope Spot, Six Senses Laamu is redefining the parameters of luxury tourism. The resort’s recent accolade as the ‘CSR Programme of the Year’ at the Hotelier Maldives Awards 2025 is a testament not to a single initiative, but to a deeply integrated, data-driven philosophy of environmental and social stewardship. This is a story told in numbers: in square metres of protected seagrass, in kilograms of sustainably sourced fish, and in the number of local students supported to become guardians of their own ecosystem.

The resort’s strategy is built on a foundation of tangible results and meaningful engagement, far from the shallow waters of performative sustainability. It is a working model demonstrating that luxury hospitality can be a powerful force for positive change, leaving a legacy of conservation and community capacity building in one of the world’s most unique and fragile environments.

Guardians of a Marine Sanctuary

The marine conservation efforts at Six Senses Laamu are both ambitious and meticulously documented. The award-winning Maldives Underwater Initiative (MUI), a collaboration between the resort’s marine biologists and powerhouse NGOs—the Manta Trust, Maldives Resilient Reefs, and Olive Ridley Project—serves as the engine for this work. In 2024 alone, their collective efforts translated into 1,350 hours of scientific surveys, providing critical data for national conservation databases.

The impact is evident across the atoll’s ecosystem. The team actively protects 335,024 square metres of seagrass meadows, a habitat often overlooked but crucial for marine biodiversity. This commitment has yielded a near-doubling of encounters with turtles, sharks, and rays. On the reefs, a massive coral restoration effort has seen the release of close to 3 million coral larvae, a vital intervention to bolster resilience against climate change.

The atoll’s iconic megafauna are also a key focus. The Olive Ridley Project’s work has been instrumental in safeguarding sea turtles, with nearly 1,600 hatchlings successfully reaching the ocean from the resort’s shores last year and more than 1150 individual turtles identified and monitored through photo-ID. Meanwhile, the Manta Trust team has so far identified 151 individual reef manta rays within the atoll and recorded 703 manta ray sightings in 2024, continuing their long-term study of the local population. All of this research and education converges at the Sea Hub of Environmental Learning in Laamu (SHELL), a state-of-the-art facility that uses immersive technology to connect guests and locals to the underwater world. For the team, this work is about understanding the deep connections within their environment. As Director of Sustainability and Conservation Lawrence Menz puts it, “In the Maldives, everything is connected — conservation, culture, community. You can’t isolate one from the other.”

Weaving a Stronger Community Fabric

Six Senses Laamu’s commitment extends well beyond its marine environment, focusing on creating lasting positive impacts within the local community. In 2024, their programmes directly engaged 1,839 community members with the marine world, fostering a shared sense of ownership and responsibility.

A cornerstone of this social outreach is the ‘Hello Hallu’ (Hello Solution) education programme. To date, it has reached 944 local students, providing them with knowledge about environmental issues and encouraging them to devise their own solutions. Last year, the programme was elevated by bringing 180 of these students to the SHELL for hands-on, practical lessons in marine conservation.

This deep engagement stems from a core belief that the resort is not an isolated entity but an active member of the Laamu community “We’re part of that local fabric and culture,” says Aishath Fithura, Community Engagement Coordinator. “Authentic engagement with our local culture and communities is what makes us uniquely Six Senses.” This philosophy drives a range of community support initiatives, from establishing fully equipped classrooms for students with special needs to supporting long-term cultural heritage projects.

Sustainable Operations from the Ground Up

The resort’s operational ethos is one of radical self-sufficiency and responsible sourcing. The ‘Plastic Free Laamu’ initiative aggressively tackles waste at its source by focusing on refusing, reducing, and repurposing materials, engaging suppliers to eliminate plastic packaging long before it reaches the atoll.

Internally, the resort produces its own bottled water, grows its own microgreens, herbs, and mushrooms, and makes everything from sauces to sodas from scratch. This commitment to local and sustainable sourcing is perhaps best exemplified by the ‘Laamaseelu Masveriya’ (Exemplary Fisher) programme. In partnership with Maldives Resilient Reefs, this initiative has created a transparent and equitable market for small-scale artisanal fishers. In 2024, this resulted in the sourcing of 13,221 kilograms of local reef fish caught with minimal ecological impact, ensuring the fishers themselves are central to the conservation solution.

For Six Senses Laamu, these practices are not for show. They are fundamental to the resort’s identity. “It’s in our operations, in our procurement, in our hiring practices,” Menz insists. “We’re not doing it for the badge. It’s part of how we exist.” It is this holistic integration that serves as a powerful blueprint for the future of hospitality in the Maldives and beyond.